Emmanuel Cid

Topographically induced internal solitary waves in a pycnocline: Ultrasonic probes and stereo-correlation measurements

Internal solitary waves (ISWs) are large amplitude stable waves propagating in regions of high density gradients such as the ocean pycnocline. Their dynamics has often been investigated in two-dimensional approaches, however, their three-dimensional evolution is still poorly known. Experiments have been conducted in the large stratified water tank of CNRM-GAME to study the generation of ISWs in two academic configurations inspired by oceanic regimes. First, ultrasonic probes are used to measure the interfacial displacement in the two configurations. In the primary generation case for which the two layers are of constant density, the generation of ISWs is investigated in two series of experiments with varying amplitude and forcing frequency. In the secondary generation case for which the lower layer is stratified, the generation of ISWs from the impact of an internal wave beam on the pycnocline and their subsequent dynamics is studied. The dynamics of ISWs in these two regimes accords well with analytical approaches and numerical simulations performed in analogous configurations. Then, recent developments of a stereo correlation technique are used to describe the three-dimensional structure of propagating ISWs. In the primary generation configuration, small transverse effects are observed in the course of the ISW propagation. In the secondary generation configuration, larger transverse structures are observed in the interfacial waves dynamics. The interaction between interfacial troughs and internal waves propagating in the lower stratified layer are a possible cause for the generation of these structures. The magnitude of these transverse structures is quantified with a nondimensional parameter in the two configurations. They are twice as large in the secondary generation case as in the primary generation case.

Simultaneous Image Registration and Monocular Volumetric Reconstruction of a Fluid Flow

We propose to combine image registration and volumetric reconstruction from a monocular video of a draining off Hele-Shaw cell filled with water. A Hele-Shaw cell is a tank whose depth is small (e.g. 1 mm) compared to the other dimensions (e.g. 400 800 mm 2 ). We use a technique known as molecular tagging which consists in marking by photobleaching a pattern in the fluid and then tracking its deformations. The evolution of the pattern is filmed with a camera whose principal axis coincides with the depth of the cell. The velocity of the fluid along this direction is not constant. Consequently, tracking the pattern cannot be achieved with classical methods because what is observed is the integration of the marked molecules over the entire depth of the cell. The proposed approach is built on top of classical direct image registration in which we incorporate a volumetric image formation model. It allows us to accurately measure the motion and the velocity profiles for the entire volume (including the depth of the cell) which is something usually hard to achieve. The results we obtain are consistent with the theoretical hydrodynamic behaviour for this flow which is known as the laminar Poiseuille flow.